Ok, buying xmas pressies today and daughter (10yrs) wants an Ipod, now what are the differences and merits etc of the Nano, Shuffle or Touch and which is better/more useful?

Not clued up too much on stuff like this.

Nano all the way, they have radio and are not too complex, shuffle has no screen, the ipod touch may be a bit fragile, one drop and they are smashed.

the Touch does give her wifi access to facebook + internet if she’s ready for that

The Apple website is actually pretty good and will help you out.

iPod touch – like an iPhone but without the phone bit. I believe all the 1000s of apps you can get for an iPhone are the same for the iPod touch, so you can pretty much do anything on them. Email, internet, games etc

iPod Shuffle/Nano – “just” a music player. As godzilla says, the Shuffle has no screen but it is far and away the least expensive.

go for the touch. Nano just plays mosic. My 10 year old has a touch and loves it, lots of free apps and most games only 69p etc. does have internet access…

His old one had a plastic screen and with a decent case survived several drops from a top bunk bed. his new one has a glass screen so we got him a military survival case to go with it (£17 ish on ebay). Well worth it, still in tact and small enough to still fit in his pocket. The kids next door did not have a case and broke the glass pretty soon.

HTH
Simone

I may be missing something here but, if you know she wants an iPod, why don’t you know which iPod she wants?

Cougar….

a. She is quite intuitive and will suss me out if i ask too much. I’m still desperately clinging on to Santa is real theory but i pretty much know she knows he isn’t.

b. Not sure she has a complete knowledge of whats available Ipod wise, just that she wants an ipod, as kids often are about stuff.

I didn’t even know what an ipod touch was, thought it was a phone 😳

If you can afford the touch, I’d say she will get more benefit from this with all the apps, internet (wifi only), larger screen for social networking, videos etc. Having said that my wife has the ipod nano, which if she’s only bothered about music will be just fine.

The Touch is versatile, she’ll be able to play music, games, etc, but be warned – it’s bloody fragile. The screen will shatter at the slightest provocation (OK, slight exaggeration, it requires a drop of a couple of inches). Great little bit of kit though.

iPod Shuffle is great if you’re willing to set up playlists on iTunes and virtully indestructible. Sometimes they even survive a 40 degree wash…

Not sure about the Nano.

The Touch is versatile, she’ll be able to play music, games, etc, but be warned – it’s bloody fragile. The screen will shatter at the slightest provocation (OK, slight exaggeration, it requires a drop of a couple of inches). Great little bit of kit though.

You can get many cases now to protect them from such falls, so if you go down the touch route budget for one of them too.

Looking around i see there are loads of alternative brand MP3 players are any of those better or same as Ipod?

Creative and Sony make good alternatives, but for simplicity can’t really fault the ipods.

At the risk of being an apple fanboy it is worth getting an actual iPod. Particularly if you go for the touch then there are loads of easily downloaded apps, tracks, podcasts etc from iTunes. Their ubiquity means that it’s easier to get compatible chargers, speaker docs, cases, etc. keep your eyes peeled for iTunes cards in Tesco, etc. they often have deals on them.

ipod touch. There simply is nothing better for £150.
At home with wifi the stuff you can do on this device is amazing. My daughter is 10 an loves her 1st generation ipod touch.

Another vote for the ipod touch here, I asked an expert, my teenage daughter would not be without hers.

Touch
My 10 year old has had his for almost 2 years, still uses it regularly and mostly for the apps. Also uses it for email and the odd bit of music

For a 10 year old girl the Touch is the one to go for.
My 15 yo daughter has one, she’s had it for 2.5 years and it still goes everywhere with her. I want it, and thought I’d nailed it when I asked her if she fancied an iphone. (Plan: She gets iphone, I get her old Touch.)
No. She wanted a BlackBerry…..bloody kids! 👿 😆

Another +1 for the Touch. That’s the one she’ll be thinking about when she mentions an iPod. My 10 year old lad (and virtually all his mates) have them – they have little speakers built in so they can hear each other’s terrible music and as above can play games/apps. Brilliant things.

Thanks for the advice/info people. Job done white Ipod Touch 8gb 4th Gen £142.49 on its way, hopefully one happy girl on xmas day.

I think she will be v happy and lucky too!